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97-522: He was created by John Carmack and designed by Tom Hall for Wolfenstein 3D , described as a large, muscular man with dark blond hair, blue eyes, and a strong jaw. He also appeared in other Wolfenstein games, such as Wolfenstein: The New Order , Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and was added to the 2017 video game Quake Champions . His ethnicity has been discussed by critics and designers, with John Carmack and Tom Hall concurring that he

194-537: A card battle game titled The Elder Scrolls: Legends in 2017 and a first-person role-playing game titled The Elder Scrolls: Blades in 2019. When Nintendo unveiled its new hybrid console, the Nintendo Switch , Bethesda expressed support for it and released ports of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Doom for that system in November 2017. A year later, it also ported Fallout Shelter , and has future plans to do

291-500: A "case-by-case" basis, but that the merger would also allow Bethesda's existing back-catalog of titles to become available on Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass service for console, PC and cloud, and that select future games from the publisher would become exclusives for Windows and the Xbox Series X/S consoles, which simultaneously launched that November. The acquisition of ZeniMax Media was formally completed on March 9, 2021. Following

388-487: A "limited integration entity" that would now report to Matt. In December 2023, Jill Braff was appointed to the role as head of Bethesda and ZeniMax Media's development teams, while simultaneously retaining her existing duties as the General Manager of Integrations and Casual Games for Xbox Game Studios . In May 2024, Microsoft announced that they were closing Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks and Alpha Dog Games as part of

485-642: A ZeniMax lawsuit against Oculus' parent company, Facebook , claiming that Oculus stole ZeniMax's virtual reality intellectual property . The trial jury absolved Carmack of liability, though Oculus and other corporate officers were held liable for trademark, copyright, and contract violations. In February 2017, Carmack sued ZeniMax, claiming the company had refused to pay him the remaining $ 22.5 million (~$ 27.5 million in 2023) owed to him from their purchase of id Software. In October 2018, Carmack stated that he and ZeniMax had reached an agreement and that "Zenimax has fully satisfied their obligations to me", ending

582-426: A direction and have a team actually stick to it." Carmack subscribes to the philosophy that small, incremental steps are the fastest route to meaningful and disruptive innovation . He compares this approach to the "magic of gradient descent " where small steps using local information result in the best outcomes. According to Carmack, this principle is proven by his own experience, and he has observed this in many of

679-555: A division of Media Technology on June 28, 1986. The formation was described as an experiment "to see if the PC market was a viable place to develop games". Weaver originally named the company "Softwerke" but found that the name was taken by a company based in Virginia . Weaver and the owner of that company agreed to co-exist rather than fight over the title, and Weaver changed the name of his company to Bethesda Softworks. He had considered creating

776-482: A failed attempt to produce a sequel to Doom 3 . Later that year, Zen Studios released virtual pinball adaptations of three games that Bethesda released during the decade thus far ( The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim , Fallout 4 and the 2016 reboot of Doom ) as the Bethesda Pinball collection for its pinball games. Bethesda went on to release two more free-to-play mobile games based on The Elder Scrolls series,

873-468: A few hundred copies distributed in plastic bags was sold out within one week, to the surprise of Bethesda Softworks. Early games scored respectably in the gaming press. Electronic Arts was working on the first John Madden Football , and hired Bethesda to help finish developing it, and acquired distribution rights for future versions of Gridiron! . In June 1988, after no new cross-console version of Gridiron! had been released, Bethesda stopped work on

970-619: A final release date for any game he was developing. Instead, when asked for a release date on a new game, Carmack would usually reply that the game would be released "when it's done". Employees at Apogee , in their past years the publishers of games by id Software, adopted this business practice as well. In 2019, as a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience , Carmack stated that his beliefs have changed over time: "I largely recant from that now." On Rage 's 6-year development time he says: "I think we should have done whatever it would have taken to ship it 2 years earlier". Carmack also reflected on

1067-469: A freelance programmer. Softdisk , a computer company in Shreveport, Louisiana , hired Carmack to work on Softdisk G-S (an Apple II GS publication), introducing him to John Romero and other future key members of id Software such as Adrian Carmack (no relation). Later, Softdisk would place this team in charge of a new, but short-lived, bi-monthly game subscription product called Gamer's Edge for

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1164-415: A largely mixed to negative reception, with scrutiny directed towards the uninspired narrative, the overall repetitiveness in objectives during the campaign, and consistent technical problems. In September 2023, Bethesda published Starfield for Windows and Xbox Series X/S. Developed by Bethesda Game Studios, the game marked the studio's first wholly original intellectual property in over 25 years. Upon

1261-406: A lawsuit against ZeniMax, claiming he was ousted by his new business partners after giving them access to his brand and was owed US$ 1.2 million in severance pay. ZeniMax filed counterclaims and moved to dismiss the case, claiming Weaver had gone through emails of other employees to find evidence. This dismissal was later vacated on appeal, and the parties settled out of court. Weaver remained

1358-542: A major shareholder in the company; as of 2007, he said that he still owned 33% of ZeniMax's stock. Providence Equity bought 25% of ZeniMax's stock in late 2007, and an additional stake in 2010. In 2004, the Fallout franchise was acquired by Bethesda Softworks from Interplay Entertainment and the development of Fallout 3 was handed over to Bethesda Game Studios. Fallout 3 was released on October 28, 2008. Five downloadable content packs for Fallout 3 were released in

1455-621: A million dollars a year." The company of hobbyists made steady progress toward their goals of suborbital space flight and eventual orbital vehicles. In October 2008, Armadillo Aerospace competed in a NASA contest known as the Lunar Lander Challenge , winning first place in the Level 1 competition along with $ 350,000 (~$ 486,412 in 2023). In September 2009, they completed Level 2 and were awarded $ 500,000 (~$ 690,323 in 2023). The company went into "hibernation mode" in 2013. According to Carmack,

1552-448: A more direct adaptation of the game series and Roger Avary was given task to write and direct the project that was said to be the story of B.J. Blazkowicz's mission to Hitler's Wolf's Lair . The character has been well received, considered one of the best protagonists in video games. Spike writer Jason Cipriano felt that The New Order was the first time B.J. was given depth, as opposed to being "another American, hell-bent on ending

1649-660: A necessity to keep their gaming business growing through periods of transition and industry stagnation, as a reason for the studio closures. Addressing Tango Gameworks directly, she proposed that the varying metrics for success on a game-by-game basis was examined when deciding to shut the studio down. Despite Tango's closure, Matt Booty reiterated the necessity for Xbox to house smaller budget titles for "prestige and awards" much like Hi-Fi Rush . On August 12, 2024, South Korean publisher Krafton announced they had entered an agreement with Microsoft Gaming and Bethesda to revive and acquire Tango Gameworks in its entirety, which also included

1746-450: A partnership with CBS Enterprises to produce the first-ever true companion PC series of games for the television series Pensacola: Wings of Gold . By December 1997, the first CD-ROM game was still in production. In 1997 and 1998, Bethesda released two The Elder Scrolls spin-offs based on Daggerfall 's code— Battlespire and Redguard —neither of which enjoyed the success of Daggerfall and Arena . The downturn in sales

1843-654: A popular film franchise, was The Terminator for MS-DOS. The title was released in July 1991, coinciding with the theatrical release of the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day . In 1994, the company released its best-known project at the time, The Elder Scrolls: Arena . The game, the first in The Elder Scrolls role-playing video game series was the work of Programmer Julian Lefay , Director and Producer Vijay Lakshman as well as others. Several sequels have been released since including The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall , which

1940-589: A regular customer that they continued to charge him 1995 prices. On occasion he has commended the efforts of similarly focused programmers – first Ken Silverman , who wrote the Build engine for 3D Realms , and later with Tim Sweeney of Epic Games , who wrote the Unreal Engine . Bethesda Softworks Bethesda Softworks LLC is an American video game publisher based in Rockville, Maryland . The company

2037-642: A remaster of Doom 64 was also launched as both a standalone release, and as a pre-order bonus for the former game on the aforementioned platforms. The re-release was co-developed by id Software and Nightdive Studios , and includes a new post-campaign expansion. In September 2020, Microsoft entered an agreement to acquire Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax Media for $ 7.5 billion, gaining ownership over all of Bethesda's associated development teams, now as part of Microsoft Gaming . The agreement stipulated that Bethesda continued to finance and self-publish their games and that titles on other platforms would be decided on

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2134-500: A sequel to the 2016 reboot for PlayStation 4 , Windows , Xbox One and the Stadia games streaming service from Google . The game's release was one of many that was affected by the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the games industry , prompting retailers such as GameStop to begin selling physical copies a day in advance of its general release to minimize crowding of customers. To coincide with Eternal 's original release,

2231-567: A significant organization restructure of Bethesda's operations. Xbox Game Content and Studios head Matt Booty explained that the shuttering of the studios reflected a desire to prioritize the development of "high-impact titles" and investing more in Bethesda's catalogue of blockbuster franchises. Mobile developer Roundhouse Studios also ceased activity, with its team being consolidated into ZeniMax Online Studios . Development of all DLC content for Redfall also ceased. Xbox president Sarah Bond cited

2328-416: A sixty-hour work week, working a 10-hour day, six days a week, throughout his career. He has spoken publicly about the importance of long hours of uninterrupted focus in his work. Not only does high intensity allow him to make progress more quickly, but long hours are also critical to maintaining a focused mindset over time. Despite working such a demanding schedule, he has never experienced burnout. Carmack

2425-494: A sticky substance of thermite mixed with Vaseline that melted through the windows. However, an overweight accomplice struggled to get through the hole and instead opened the window, setting off a silent alarm and alerting police. Carmack was arrested and sent for psychiatric evaluation. He was sentenced to a year in a juvenile home. He attended the University of Missouri–Kansas City for two semesters before withdrawing to work as

2522-567: A successful hostile acquisition of Arkane Studios before that. According to a report from IGN , ZeniMax started purposefully failing Human Head's project milestones so that they would not get paid, allowing ZeniMax to buy the company at a reduced rate. They were accused of doing the same thing with Arkane Studios, although in Arkane's case, the studio gave in and allowed themselves to be bought. The failed hostile acquisition of Human Head Studios led to cancellation of Human Head's Prey 2 , according to

2619-472: A unique name, such as one using the word "magic" after a quote from Arthur C. Clarke , but "Bethesda Softworks" ultimately stuck. Unlike VideoMagic, Bethesda Softworks was entirely self-funded, starting with roughly US$ 100,000 , and was not attached to any business plan. Gridiron! was released as the company's first game later in 1986 for the Amiga, Atari ST , and Commodore 64 systems. The initial release of

2716-408: Is Jewish . B.J. Blazkowicz was created for the 1992 video game Wolfenstein 3D by John Carmack and Tom Hall . He is a large, muscular man with dark-blonde hair, blue eyes, and a strong jaw. The motion comic series created to promote 2009's Wolfenstein claims a continuous (partially retconned ) timeline with Wolfenstein 3D , B.J.'s grandson, also named William Blazkowicz but primarily using

2813-399: Is also known for taking week-long programming retreats. These retreats involve a solitary, uninterrupted period away from his normal routine often sequestered in a random city and hotel. The goal of these retreats is to allow Carmack to operate at full cognitive capacity, tackling a specific, difficult problem or learning a new skill. The solitude and physical isolation of these retreats offer

2910-655: Is an American computer programmer and video game developer . He co-founded the video game company id Software and was the lead programmer of its 1990s games Commander Keen , Wolfenstein 3D , Doom , Quake , and their sequels. Carmack made innovations in 3D computer graphics , such as his Carmack's Reverse algorithm for shadow volumes . In 2013, he resigned from id Software to work full-time at Oculus VR as their CTO . In 2019, he reduced his role to Consulting CTO so he could allocate more time toward artificial general intelligence (AGI). In 2022, he left Oculus to work on his AGI startup, Keen Technologies. Carmack

3007-529: Is derived from his Jewish heritage, and how the recovery of a ring he eventually gives to Anya represents B.J. reclaiming his Judaism from Engel. His role in The New Colossus was discussed, with Rock Paper Shotgun writer Edwin Evans-Thirlwell feeling that his "white heroism risks echoing chauvinism , and how it and toxic social archetypes at large may become instruments of resistance." He discussed how

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3104-451: Is that his appearance was "incompatible [and antithetical] with Jewish stereotypes," and that his upbringing - being an all-American in Texas - felt distinctly un-Jewish. Polygon writer Carli Velocci discussed her heritage as a half-Jewish person, comparing their experience with B.J.'s, stating that like him, they also are not understood to be Jewish. They cited things like their appearance, which

3201-465: Is with the concept of "shooting, stabbing, and strangling Nazis." B.J. Blazkowicz has appeared as the protagonist in multiple games, starting with Wolfenstein 3D , where he was tasked with fighting the Nazis , including a battle against Mecha Hitler . In 2009's Wolfenstein , he returns to fight the resurgent Fourth Reich 's use of a highly destructive energy of great power from the parallel world known as

3298-496: The 2012 presidential campaign of Libertarian Ron Paul , and is an atheist . During a conversation with Joe Rogan , Carmack revealed that he had trained in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo for several years as a hobby. During his time at id Software, a medium pepperoni pizza would arrive for Carmack from Domino's Pizza almost every day, carried by the same delivery person for more than 15 years. Carmack had been such

3395-522: The BFG Edition in 2012). The source code for Hovertank 3D and Catacomb 3D (as well as Carmack's earlier Catacomb ) was released in June 2014 by Flat Rock Software with Carmack's blessing. He has since expressed regret on using the copyleft GPL over the more permissive BSD license . The release of id Tech 4 occurred despite patent concerns from Creative Labs over Carmack's reverse , while

3492-523: The Black Sun dimension, which is again pitting him against Deathshead. The New Order establishes a new timeline that alters the previously perceived post-war profile , where Captain Blazkowicz suffers a head injury in 1946 that leaves him in a vegetative state for 14 years in a Polish asylum. In 1960, Blazkowicz awakens from his vegetative state as he is about to be executed, and joins the resistance against

3589-558: The COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States, following a series of delays for polish after the negative reception of Fallout 76 ' s initial launch. In November 2019, Human Head Studios shut down while Bethesda established a new studio, Roundhouse Studios, offering all Human Head employees a position within it. In 2016, Bethesda had released its own application launcher for PC. Fallout 76 and Fallout Shelter were exclusives to

3686-451: The Fallout series. Upon its initial release, it was given mixed reviews for its poor quality and was embroiled in several other controversies, including problems with tie-in products and a data breach. The following year saw Bethesda announce sequels to Rage and Doom , Rage 2 and Doom Eternal . The former was released on May 14, while the latter released in early 2020 shortly after

3783-593: The National Cable Television Association and created its Office of Science and Technology, where he helped design high-speed data communication systems for several member companies of the association. Eventually, Weaver became the chief engineer for the United States House Energy Subcommittee on Communications and Technology , where he influenced legislation that affected the telephone, television, and cable industries. In

3880-701: The Utah GLX project. Carmack released the source code for Wolfenstein 3D in 1995 and the Doom source code in 1997, first under a custom license and then under the GNU General Public License (GPL) in 1999. When the source code to Quake was leaked and circulated among the Quake community underground in 1997 after licensee Crack dot Com was hacked, a programmer unaffiliated with id Software named Greg Alexander used it to port Quake to Linux using SVGALib . As this

3977-478: The arcades during a summer vacation as a child. The 1980 maze chase arcade game Pac-Man also left a strong impression on him. He cited Nintendo designer Shigeru Miyamoto as the game developer he most admired. As reported in David Kushner's Masters of Doom , when Carmack was 14, he broke into a school with other children to steal Apple II computers. To gain entry to the building, Carmack concocted

B.J. Blazkowicz - Misplaced Pages Continue

4074-560: The pseudonym Billy Blaze, became the titular protagonist of the Commander Keen series. Billy Blaze later became the grandfather of Doomguy , protagonist of the Doom series. When contacted about B.J. being Jewish, a Bethesda Softworks representative said that it was "never explicitly stated," and the developer MachineGames stated that they "[left] it up to the player to interpret." However, Tom Hall later confirmed that Blazkowicz's mother

4171-599: The "Aryan ideal," he uses it to fight oppression, and that "there is a massive difference in their hearts." Paste Magazine writer Dante Douglas similarly discussed the confusion of B.J. as having an Aryan figure in-universe, particularly a scene where Engels does a Rorschach -style test, only for it to mean nothing in the end. He noted how this represented there not being a "right way" to "pass in Nazi society," but instead, "Nazi society sees what it wants to see." John Carmack John D. Carmack II (born August 21, 1970)

4268-482: The 1997 QuakeCon when she visited id's offices. As a bet, Kang challenged Carmack to sponsor the first all-female Quake tournament if she was able to produce a significant number of participants. Carmack predicted a maximum of 25 participants, but there were 1,500. Carmack and Kang married on January 1, 2000, and planned a ceremony in Hawaii. Steve Jobs requested that they would postpone the ceremony so Carmack could attend

4365-415: The 20th anniversary of Wolfenstein 3-D , Bethesda Softworks released a free B.J. Xbox Live Avatar mask. B.J. also appears in the 2005 German film Der Goldene Nazivampir von Absam 2 – Das Geheimnis von Schloß Kottlitz . Portrayed by Daniel Krauss, B.J. tracks down Nazi scientists to disclose the secret of " miracle weapons " involving Dracula 's bones In 2007, Samuel Hadida bought the rights to make

4462-633: The IBM PC (DOS) platform. In 1990, while still at Softdisk, Carmack, Romero, and others created the first of the Commander Keen games, a series that was published by Apogee Software , under the shareware distribution model, from 1991 onwards. Afterwards, Carmack left Softdisk to co-found id Software . Carmack has pioneered or popularized the use of many techniques in computer graphics, including " adaptive tile refresh " for Commander Keen , ray casting for Hovertank 3D , Catacomb 3-D , and Wolfenstein 3D , binary space partitioning which Doom became

4559-636: The MacWorld Expo on January 5, 2000. Carmack declined and suggested making a video instead. Carmack and Kang had a son Christopher Ryan in August 2004. Their second son was born in November 2009. Carmack is divorced as of 2022. On May 26, 2022, he announced his divorce and how he met his partner Trista through the VR Beat Saber games he would host via Twitter. As a game developer, Carmack differed from many of his contemporaries by avoiding commitment to

4656-764: The Nazi regime," discussing his relationships and personal motivations to fight the Nazis. GamesRadar writer Ryan Talionick felt he became more interesting, praising Brian Bloom 's voice work for helping making him more believable. Whether B.J. is Jewish was discussed by some critics; UGO.com staff speculated on his Judaism, noting that despite it not being confirmed, though called him an "honorary Jew" for having killed so many Nazis. Kotaku writer Stephen Totilo cited hints about his ethnicity, including his knowledge of Hebrew and his mother's recitation of Birkat Hagomel . Polygon writer Hunter Pauli, while discussing how uncommon Jewish characters in video games were, noted that it

4753-459: The Nazis who have conquered the whole world and who include his old nemesis Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse. This storyline is continued in The New Colossus which directly follows up on the last events of The New Order where Blazkowicz nearly dies of grenade fragmentation injuries in the final battle but promptly gets evacuated by Anya Oliwa and the surviving Kreisau resistance members under

4850-711: The World Wide Web. In 1997, Bethesda acquired XL Translab, a Washington, D.C. , graphics company that stemmed from the Catholic University School of Architecture and Planning . It was moved to Bethesda Softworks' Rockville headquarters. XL Translab had previously done work for PBS and Fortune 500 companies. By 1996, the company had become the third-biggest player in the privately held PC publishing industry after LucasArts and Interplay Entertainment with 75 employees by that year and revenues of $ 25 million by 1997. In June and July 1997, Bethesda announced

4947-486: The affair, but Bethesda refused to pay. In the end Madia decided not to take it to court. Pete Hines, VP of PR at Bethesda, stated that Madia presented misleading allegations about Bethesda's role as publisher of Echelon in North America and that Bethesda had no contractual obligations to Madia. Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax Media have been accused of attempting a hostile acquisition of Human Head Studios , as well as

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5044-473: The amended terms. Both titles were eventually released on Xbox Series X/S a year following their respective PlayStation 5 versions. In January 2023, Bethesda announced and released Hi-Fi Rush from Tango Gameworks. The publisher purposely kept the game's development secret by due to possible skepticism and uncertainty regarding audience feedback. In May 2023, Bethesda launched Redfall for Windows and Xbox Series X/S from Arkane Austin, though it received

5141-523: The biggest launch period in Bethesda's history as a publisher. In October 2023, Bethesda's head of publishing Pete Hines announced he would be retiring. Later that month, a corporate restructuring of the newly formed Microsoft Gaming subsidiary took place following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard , that saw the promotion of executive Matt Booty from president of Xbox to overseeing their entire Game Content and Studios business, with Jamie Leder still retaining supervision over ZeniMax Media as

5238-407: The company acquired an Amiga personal computer with which the two began to experiment. Fletcher was a fan of American football and suggested that they develop a football video game for the system, which Weaver supported despite no interest in the sport. Fletcher developed the game, later named Gridiron! , out of Weaver's house in Bethesda, Maryland, in roughly nine months. His initial approach

5335-486: The company expanded publishing operations, with games from independent third-party developers such as Rebellion Developments 's Rogue Warrior , Artificial Mind and Movement 's Wet , Splash Damage 's Brink , and inXile 's Hunted: The Demon's Forge . In 2011, Bethesda filed a lawsuit against Mojang (developers of Minecraft ) for using Scrolls as the name of a new digital card game, which sounded too close to The Elder Scrolls trademarked by Bethesda. In

5432-658: The company opened a European publishing arm in London, named ZeniMax Europe, to distribute titles throughout UK/EMEA territories under the Bethesda Softworks brand. This was followed in by opening publishing offices in Tokyo, Frankfurt, Paris, Eindhoven, Hong Kong, Sydney and Moscow in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2018 respectively. On June 24, 2009, ZeniMax Media acquired id Software , whose titles, including Rage , would be published by Bethesda Softworks. Between 2009 and 2012,

5529-479: The company will continue to operate as a separate business. Part of the Microsoft Gaming division, Bethesda Softworks retains its function as the publisher of games developed by the different studios under ZeniMax Media. Before founding Bethesda Softworks, Christopher Weaver was a technology forecaster and a communications engineer in the television and cable industries. After finishing graduate school , he

5626-513: The decapitation and reassembly of B.J. with a new body made him seem like an object, and how his wife's lack of any strong reaction to his "vat-grown Nazi flesh" feels "sinister." Kotaku writer Heather Alexandra commented on how the game focuses on B.J.'s body, citing multiple instances in The New Order where it was viewed as an "Aryan figure," with Alexandra noting that this was also a "model of an ideal video game protagonist." She discussed how

5723-538: The designer Bruce Nesmith, Altman was principally interested in Bethesda's web development business at Vir2L Studios, not the game development aspect. ZeniMax acquired Media Technology in July 1999 and Bethesda Softworks was reorganized as a division of ZeniMax. By then Bethesda employed nearly 100 people. In 2001, Bethesda Game Studios was established as the development team, leaving Bethesda Softworks to focus on all publishing operations of ZeniMax Media. In 2002, Weaver stopped being employed by ZeniMax. He later filed

5820-401: The early 2010s, Bethesda Softworks published games such as Dishonored , Wolfenstein: The New Order , and The Evil Within . In the mid-2010s, Bethesda began to experiment with new kinds of games, releasing Fallout Shelter , its first mobile, free-to-play game in the summer of 2015. A year later, it released a reboot of id Software's Doom , after several years of development as

5917-454: The early access launch, the game reached a peak of 230,000 concurrent players on Steam within two hours. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer announced on launch day that the game subsequently became the most played Xbox Series X/S-exclusive game since the console's launch, as well as the most wish-listed game on Steam for either Xbox or Bethesda in their respective histories. Starfield reached ten million players across Xbox and PC by September 19, making it

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6014-417: The engine as a true 3D engine that delivered above any other engine in its lighting in that it uses real-time phong shading, which means that light effects from fires, explosions, the moon, or whatever will bleed off and light up anything the light will touch. The Terminator: Future Shock was the first game to use the engine, and also the first 3D PC game to use the now popular mouse-look interface, which

6111-576: The first game to use, surface caching which he invented for Quake , Carmack's Reverse (formally known as z-fail stencil shadows) which he devised for Doom 3 , and MegaTexture technology, first used in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars . Quake 3 popularized the fast inverse square root algorithm. Carmack's engines have also been licensed for use in other influential first-person shooters such as Half-Life , Call of Duty and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault . In 2007, when Carmack

6208-420: The helm of Caroline Becker. Blazkowicz spends the next five months in a coma as a result of his grave wounds. In the spinoff Youngblood , an aged Blazkowicz goes missing and it's up to his daughters to track him down and rescue him. In June 2017, Blazkowicz was added to Quake Champions as a playable champion. His in-game abilities include dual gun wielding and limited auto-healing. In May 2012, to celebrate

6305-454: The holding company ZeniMax Media . In an interview with Edge , he described the company as being a top-level administrative structure rather than a "parent company" for its holdings, explaining that "ZeniMax and Bethesda for all intents and purposes are one thing. Bethesda has no accounting department, we have no finance, we have no legal, our legal department [and] our financial department is ZeniMax, we all operate as one unit." According to

6402-421: The internal development of Quake in this regard and described it as "traumatic" and says id Software could have split the game into two parts and shipped it earlier. Carmack has a blog last updated in 2006 (previously a .plan , which could be accessed by making a finger request for johnc@idsoftware.com ), an active Twitter account, and also occasionally posts comments to Slashdot . Carmack supported

6499-418: The launcher before eventually released on Steam. In 2022, Bethesda shut down the launcher. The launcher was mostly met with negative reception. PC Gamer said that "Bethesda's launcher seems to be designed more as a pretty interface to purchase Bethesda's games than a way of managing them. [...] the client feels more like a store than anything." In March 2020, Bethesda Softworks published Doom Eternal ,

6596-888: The meantime, Weaver also founded VideoMagic Laboratories with a friend from the Architecture Machine Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They authored and assembled a 400-page business plan to commercialize their prior lab work and, through the Industrial Liaison Office at MIT, came in contact with a wealthy family in the electronics industry that provided VideoMagic with venture capital . The company developed several technologies, including location-based entertainment systems, that Weaver deemed "radical and cutting-edge" but put out prematurely, causing little commercial return. The funding family, having financial issues of its own, dropped out of

6693-625: The merger's completion, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer clarified that future titles from Bethesda would primarily ship on any platforms hosting Xbox Game Pass. In September 2021, Bethesda published Deathloop , a first-person shooter with time-warping mechanics from Arkane Lyon . The following March, Bethesda released Ghostwire: Tokyo , a first-person horror-themed action-adventure game developed by Tango Gameworks. Both games were announced as being timed console exclusives for PlayStation 5 before Microsoft purchased ZeniMax Media, an existing contractual obligation that would be honored by Microsoft despite

6790-410: The motion capture for the role. Bloom discussed exploring the softer side of B.J., with him described as a "square-headed high-school jock with a heart of gold," describing how he "expresses himself physically by getting the job done," but that his inner voice is "quiet and softer and more contemplative, maybe less secure than he is forced to perpetrate to the other folks." He discussed how ubiquitous B.J.

6887-561: The original Doom source release shipped without music due to complications with the Cygnus Studios developed DMX library (which lead to the Linux version being selected for release). Carmack has since advised developers to be careful when utilizing middleware, noting how it can limit the possibilities of later releasing source code. Tim Sweeney has implied this issue has hindered potential releases of older Unreal Engine source code. On

6984-501: The other hand, despite his technical admiration for the system, Carmack has several times over the years voiced a sceptical opinion about Linux as a gaming platform . In 2013, he argued for emulation as the "proper technical direction for gaming on Linux", and in 2014 he voiced the opinion that Linux might be the biggest problem for the success of the Steam Machine . Carmack contributes to charities and gaming communities. Some of

7081-466: The perfect environment for deep focus and reflection, making them an essential part of Carmack's creative process. Carmack was vocal about his frustration with the bureaucratic inefficiencies he encountered during his time at Meta. In his departure memo, he stated, "We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort," he wrote. "I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set

7178-472: The power armor he wears, created by a Jewish organization, is a "manifestation of faith" and a "feat of Jewish ingenuity," but also that it can be "broken and beaten." She stated that "faith ... cannot last forever in the face of unspeakable oppression." When discussing his new body, she noted how it "fits so well onto a Nazi-crafted model of physical perfection" and looks similar to how he looked before losing his head. However, she added that despite his body being

7275-487: The project and sued Electronic Arts for US$ 7.3 million , claiming EA halted the release while incorporating many of its elements into Madden . The case was resolved out of court. Courteney Cox , later known for her role in the sitcom Friends , worked at the publisher briefly in the 1980s. In 1990, the company moved from Bethesda to Rockville, Maryland. By February 1993, the company employed 40 people. The first game Bethesda published and developed, based on

7372-532: The recipients of Carmack's charitable contributions include his former high school, promoters of open-source software, opponents of software patents, and game enthusiasts. Carmack was so successful at id that by mid-1994 he had purchased two Ferraris : a Ferrari 328 and a Ferrari Testarossa . In 1997, he gave away the Ferrari 328 as a prize to Dennis Fong , the winner of the Quake tournament " Red Annihilation ". He met his now ex-wife Katherine Anna Kang , at

7469-566: The report. Bethesda also pressured developer No Matter Games to change the name of their game Prey for the Gods to Praey for the Gods , as Bethesda felt the initial title infringed upon the trademark of their own game, Prey . Pete Hines, who serves as Bethesda's VP of marketing, said Bethesda would have risked losing their Prey trademark if they had not requested the title change. In September 2009, Bethesda Softworks sued Interplay Entertainment over Fallout trademark infringement . After

7566-634: The rights to the Star Trek series of video games. The first game published by the company was Star Trek: Encounters , released in 2006. In September 2009, Bethesda filed a lawsuit against Interplay Entertainment, after being unsatisfied with Interplay's development of the Fallout massively multiplayer online game project. Bethesda stopped funding the project, and Interplay was forced to abandon work on it. Between 2007 and 2010, Bethesda raised US$ 450 million in new capital from Providence Equity Partners to fund expansion efforts. In February 2008,

7663-460: The same for its two Elder Scrolls mobile games. Games such as Prey , Dishonored: Death of the Outsider , The Evil Within 2 , and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus have not sold as well as compared to Fallout and The Elder Scrolls according to Bethesda's Pete Hines. In late 2018, Bethesda announced and released its first massively multiplayer online game, Fallout 76 , a prequel to

7760-448: The smartest people in the world. He states, "Little tiny steps using local information winds up leading to all the best answers." Around 2000, Carmack became interested in rocketry, a hobby of his youth. Reviewing how much money he was spending on customizing Ferraris, he began by giving financial support to a few local amateur engineers. Carmack funded the company, called Armadillo Aerospace, out of his own pocket, for "something north of

7857-498: The suit. On November 13, 2019, Carmack stepped down from the Oculus CTO role to become a "Consulting CTO" in order to allocate more time to his work on artificial general intelligence (AGI). On August 19, 2022, Carmack announced that he has raised $ 20M for Keen Technologies, his new AGI company. On December 16, 2022, Carmack left Oculus to focus on Keen. "Working more gets more done." — John Carmack Carmack has maintained

7954-781: The transferral of the Hi-Fi Rush license. Publishing rights to either the original Hi-Fi Rush or Tango Gameworks' previous games remained with Microsoft. XnGine is a 3-D graphics engine that was developed by Bethesda in the 1990's. It incorporated technology advances that made games more realistic. The engine featured quicker action, unrestricted viewing angles and freedom of movement. Its proprietary technology integrates 360-degree rotation with fully textured polygons, SVGA/VGA graphics and specialized video effects. XnGine can generate weather effects, such as snow, sleet and fog; realistic shading; and textured, contoured terrain. In an Interview with PCM&E Magazine in 1996, Todd Howard described

8051-807: The venture and sold off some of VideoMagic's properties. After leaving the House Subcommittee some years later, Weaver established Media Technology Associates, Limited (renamed Media Technology Limited in March 1988) in June 1981. The company provided engineering and media consulting for private companies and government organizations. Media Technology had offices in Maryland and New York. At Media Technology, Weaver worked with Ed Fletcher, an electrical engineer with whom he had collaborated at VideoMagic, on video games for LaserDisc -based systems until that industry crashed in 1984. While waiting for potential new contracts,

8148-473: The work in the aerospace industry is "simple" compared to the work he does in video games. Carmack is an advocate of open-source software , and has repeatedly voiced his opposition to software patents , equating them to robbery. He has also contributed to open-source projects, such as starting the initial port of the X Window System to Mac OS X Server and working to improve the OpenGL drivers for Linux through

8245-566: The year following its release — Operation: Anchorage , The Pitt , Broken Steel , Point Lookout , and Mothership Zeta . Obsidian Entertainment 's new Fallout title, Fallout: New Vegas was published in 2010. Fallout 4 was released on November 10, 2015. Between 2004 and 2008, ZeniMax's subsidiaries Mud Duck Productions and Vir2L Studios released four bowling games for various platforms — AMF Bowling 2004 , AMF Xtreme Bowling 2006 , AMF Bowling World Lanes , and AMF Bowling Pinbusters! . In January 2006, Bethesda acquired

8342-403: Was Jewish, which Carmack assumed to be the case. His voice actor, Brian Bloom , felt that B.J. is the kind of person who fights bigotry regardless of his ethnicity. Cast for Wolfenstein: The New Order , Brian Bloom did not know initially who he was voicing or in what, only knowing the people working on the game. He was excited when he found out, identifying it as his favorite role. He also did

8439-608: Was born in Shawnee Mission, Kansas , the son of local television news reporter Stan Carmack. He grew up in the Kansas City metropolitan area , where he became interested in computers at an early age. He attended Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, Kansas and Raytown South High School in nearby Raytown, Missouri . Carmack was introduced to video games with the 1978 shoot 'em up game Space Invaders in

8536-473: Was founded by Christopher Weaver in 1986 as a division of Media Technology Limited. In 1999, it became a subsidiary of ZeniMax Media . In its first 15 years, it was a video game developer and self-published its titles. In 2001, Bethesda spun off its in-house development team into Bethesda Game Studios , leaving Bethesda Softworks to focus on publishing operations. In March 2021, Microsoft acquired Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax Media, maintaining that

8633-485: Was hired by the American Broadcasting Company , where he wrote several memos about "the importance of alternative distribution systems and how satellites and broadband networks would impact network television", which landed him the position of manager of technology forecasting. After several national magazines quoted his articles on "the exciting prospects for cabled distribution systems", he was recruited by

8730-421: Was identified as not "Jewish enough," and their Italian-sounding name, though they also mentioned that being half-Jewish caused members of the community to deny their ethnicity. They speculated that B.J. did not have much in the way of Jewish education due to the little evidence of him practicing his faith, as well as him not fitting physical stereotypes of Jewish people. They discussed how B.J.'s "purpose and drive"

8827-598: Was initially unpopular with gamers. The engine was later used in Terminator: SkyNET , Daggerfall , XCar: Experimental Racing , and other titles. In 2001, Bethesda Softworks published Echelon in the United States, a video game developed by the Russian development studio Madia. Madia stated that Bethesda did not pay for boxed sales of the game, as was allegedly specified in the contract. The developers at Madia wrote an open letter to Bethesda in which they have detailed

8924-468: Was more feature rich than Dave Taylor 's earlier X11 port, he sent the patches to Carmack. Instead of pursuing legal action, id Software used the patches as the foundation for a company-sanctioned Linux port maintained by new hire Zoid Kirsch, who later ported Quakeworld and Quake II to Linux as well. id Software has since publicly released the source code to Quake in 1999, Quake 2 in 2001, Quake 3 in 2005 and lastly Doom 3 in 2011 (and later

9021-404: Was not limited just to The Elder Scrolls franchise, and the company considered filing for bankruptcy as a result. In October 1999, Pete Hines joined Bethesda to head up its marketing department, running it as what he described as a one-man band . At the start of his tenure, the company had employed around 15 people in its Rockville headquarters. In 1999, Weaver and Robert A. Altman formed

9118-457: Was on vacation with his wife, he ended up playing some games on his cellphone, and decided he was going to make a "good" mobile game. On August 7, 2013, Carmack joined Oculus VR as their CTO . On November 22, 2013, he resigned from id Software to work full-time at Oculus VR. Carmack's reason for leaving was that id's parent company ZeniMax Media did not want to support Oculus Rift. Carmack's role at both companies later became central to

9215-685: Was released in September 1996. Between 1994 and 1997, Bethesda was developing a space combat game titled The 10th Planet . It was a collaboration between Bethesda and Roland Emmerich's Centropolis Entertainment . During development, Centropolis chose to stop working on the game due to the company's commitments to its films. The project was never released. In 1995, Bethesda Softworks acquired Noctropolis developer Flashpoint Productions, which Brent Erickson had founded in 1992. In July 1995, Bruce Nesmith joined Bethesda as Senior Producer. In August 1995, Bethesda Softworks launched its website on

9312-405: Was to use lookup tables to map player inputs to predetermined outcomes. Weaver disliked this concept and, at his behest, he and Fletcher devised a more realistic, physics-based system. No artists or animators were involved in the project, which gave the game a sub-par graphical presentation for the time. Weaver formed Bethesda Softworks "on the proverbial kitchen table" of his Bethesda home as

9409-413: Was unfortunate that so many were represented through stereotypes, and the only thing distinguishing B.J. from the others is that he looks white. He discussed how he and other Jewish gamers felt that B.J. was Jewish, stating speculation that it would make sense for his ethnicity to be concealed. He commended Machine Games for making his ethnicity canon, he noted that a common argument against B.J. being Jewish

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